2,666 more women than men turned up to exercise their right to franchise
Women voters outnumbered their male counterparts in electing representatives to the powerful Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Leh, which governs the district politically.
The elections to 26 constituencies of Leh Council were held on October 17.
Official sources told The Tribune that a total of 53,134 voters out of the total 81,134 (40,858 male and 40,276 female) turned up to cast their vote in the Council poll.
“An interesting trend was witnessed in these elections. Of the 53,134 voters who participated in the elections, 27,900 were women as against 25,234 male voters,” an official source said.
Sources said female voters outscored their male counterparts in 23 out of the total 26 constituencies while they lagged male electors in Korzok, Khaltse and Lamayouru constituencies.
They said out of 1,850 voters in the Chushul segment — 915 male and 935 female — 695 women turned up at polling booths against 606 men.
In Nyoma, out of 1,272 registered women voters, 920 exercised their franchise. There are 1,147 male voters in the segment.
In Khaltse, only three more male voters exercised their franchise than female voters. “The number of male and female voters in the constituency was 1,092 and 1,022 respectively. Of them, 729 men and 726 women made it to the polling booths,” said a source.
“The recent trend was an encouraging sign as it reflected the growing awareness among women folk about their fundamental rights in this remote region of the state,” the source said.
The Lower Leh segment had the highest number of 10,052 electors while the Sku-Markha constituency had just 649 voters.
The smallest polling stations, Gaik and Ezang, had 12 voters each followed by Thukjey polling station with 17 voters and Khakted with 20 electors.
